While we still wait on the BDUK blanket EU State Aid approval to arrive
another project edges closer to the point where it could start actual delivery
work, rather than just meetings and reports.

South Gloucestershire Council who have partnered with Wiltshire Council has
announced that BT is the preferred bidder for the project to implement the
USC and Superfast broadband targets. The project currently has a total of £23m
of public money, with as yet an unknown amount being contributed by BT, the
funding split is £15.5m from Wiltshire and £2.2m from South Gloucestershire
Council, the amount from the central BDUK fund is just £5.37m.

For those living and working in the area http://www.southglos.gov.uk/broadband has more information on the
project including a map showing the postcodes where project will be
operating.

One of the local papers suggests that the project has cleared the Brussels
hurdle, which we presume means that EU State Aid approval has been received,
but this we believe is not the case yet. The newspaper article does point out
that residents of Swindon are not part of this project, with Swindon following
its own path to broadband nirvana.

Comments

Posted by
mikejp over 4 years ago
Andrew - you need to check the text:

"The procurement programme is being led by Wiltshire Council with an investment of 15.5m with an additional 4.66m government funding. South Gloucestershire Council is investing £2.2m in the district’s broadband provision, alongside £710,000 of government funding."

£5.37mill is correct but South Glos is £2.2mill, not £710,000

Posted by
andrew ( staff member)
over 4 years ago
My mistake - was on their website, but copied across wrong figure when doing the sums.

If BT adds a figure in the £20m to the project the £5m from BDUK looks even more woeful.

Posted by
zyborg47 over 4 years ago
Bt again, what a surprise

Posted by
Bob_s2 over 4 years ago
Why should the BDUK funding look woefull? BDUK are only making up the difference. It tends to indicate the area is close to profitable.

Posted by
andrew ( staff member)
over 4 years ago
Woeful, because council feel the need to not just match but put three times the amount into project.

Posted by
camieabz over 4 years ago
"The project currently has a total of £23m of public money, with as yet an unknown amount being contributed by BT"

That worries me. You would think a council would be warning their taxpayers if the BT share was less than desirable, or that BT would be trumpeting the amount if it was the opposite.

Posted by
andrew ( staff member)
over 4 years ago
Until the contract has been signed the BT amount is confidential at a guess - simplez.

Preferred bidder is very different to having Bill Murphy sign on the dotted line.

Posted by
fastman over 4 years ago
any succesful operator would have to provide an element of match funding (depending on ad intenitity and other factors) and that figure will usually remain conidential (although it can be indicated once the winning bidder advises contract amount

Posted by
camieabz over 4 years ago
In the event of a preferred bidder list of 'one', is there a risk of transparency leading to being out-bid? ;)

I assume it's a list of one, as there's no obvious mention of others in the link.

Posted by
ron51 over 4 years ago
Perhaps people like zyborg47 should stop criticising companies such as BT who are at least putting their money where there mouth is and ask why others are sitting on the sidelines and continually sniping.